monkey cupcake

2009-07-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

This is an experiment with Picasa and blogging.

2009-04-17T14:27:00.000-05:00

Feather Shoes!

2008-10-27T10:17:00.004-05:00

Oh J Crew, why do you do this to me? I am in love with these shoes!

The color above is my favorite, probably because of the blue! But I think if I were to get them I would get the black ones because they are more "practical".

At least jcrew.com gives me pretty things to look at!

Sunday Dinner

2008-10-26T19:29:00.003-05:00

Tonight I made the Lentil Soup from Martha Stewart's Everday Food cookbook and the Jalapeno, Cheddar Cornbread from Ina Garten. It was such a delicious combination and I am excited about leftovers! RAR was able to join us for dinner, though dad was busy in the OR.

This is a picture of the cornbread batter. It was so thick. I was sure something was wrong with it but it was fine. We couldn't find jalapenos at Central Market so we ended up using Serrano peepers. Those are much hotter so we used less than what Ina said to use. The cornbread is really good and different than the dry, boring cornbread that you usually get.

Here is a picture of the soup in our Apilco lions head bowls that I have been wanting to use! We also used our Spode Delamere plates that I love and they are perfect to use in the Fall!

RAR and I went to Smith and Hawkens yesterday and she bought me this woven tray that I saw and loved last year but never got. It's a blurry picture but I didn't take another. I'm excited about all of the things I can do with it!

The soup was delicious as was the cornbread! I would definitely make both again. RAR had made the cornbread several times and I swear that mine wasn't as good as hers. If I made the soup again I would try making it without the bacon to be on the healthier side. Even though it was in the high 70's and low 80's all day it was a delicious dinner for a Fall night! Thank you Ina and thank you Martha!

I really need to be grading right now but I just can't make myself do it. I had a busy day of running, grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry that makes me feel grading would be just a little too much!

Lentil Soup from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
Serves 4

3 strips (3 ounces) bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/4-inch half-moons
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth (3 1/2 cups)
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

In a Dutch oven (or other 5-quart pot with a tight-fitting lid), cook bacon over medium-low heat until browned and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat.
Add onion and carrots; cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato paste, and cook 1 minute.
Add lentils, thyme, broth, and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Cover; cook until lentils are tender, 30 to 45 minutes.
Stir in vinegar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Serve immediately.Note: If you prefer to leave out the bacon, skip step 1, and cook the onions and carrots in 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Ina Garten's Jalapeno, Cheddar Cornbread

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 cups milk
3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra to grease the pan
8 ounces aged extra-sharp Cheddar, grated, divided
1/3 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts, plus extra for garnish, 3 scallions
3 tablespoons seeded and minced fresh jalapeno peppers

Directions:

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and butter. With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don't over mix! Mix in 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking pan.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining grated Cheddar and extra chopped scallions.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut into large squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sad news!

2008-10-16T09:46:00.003-05:00

Ok, I haven't had these in years, but I am sad to hear that Mother's Cookies company is going out of business! I love, love, love the circus animal cookies even though they are sickeningly sweet!
I remember a trip to Dallas when I was little where we had a bag of these in the car. I ate way too many and I don't regret it. They are awesome! The English Tea cookies were good too. I'm heading to the store after work to get a bag or two!

Last night's dinner!

2008-10-15T18:49:00.002-05:00

The linguine with turkey sausage and peppers was delicious! It was very easy to make and it made enough that PW and I will get several meals out of it! We used spicy Italian sausage from Central Market. (I never want to live without a Central Market within a few miles. I love that place!) We both like spicy things so the red pepper flakes were great.

We used yellow peppers which were delicious. I didn't slice them as thinly as Martha did so it took longer than the 6 minutes it said it would take for the peppers to get soft. And PW was a HUGE fan of the 6 cloves of garlic sliced thinly throughout!

After going to the social security office (I am now officially RRW!) PW and I decided we should reward ourselves for spending an hour there so we went two blocks down the street to the downtown Spec's to get a bottle of Chianti (I don't mind making an excuse to get out the Juliska!) I mean we were cooking Italian food . . .

My camera is not the best for taking pictures with flash so I had to play around and take a bunch. This one came out ok. We ended up using whole wheat linguine and it was delicious, though it looks all one color in this picture! Some arugula would have changed that . . .

I made the full recipe and still can't get over how much a pound of pasta is. We will definitely make it again and we even immediately started to discuss how we could play with the recipe. We both want to try it with yellow AND red peppers next time. I would definitely add the arugula. It was nice and light and I didn't feel stuffed after eating it. It was also fun to get to use our pasta bowls and even though we could have served it out of the pot it was fun to serve it in the tulip bowl we got from Williams Sonoma for our wedding!

PS-I just ate some for dinner and it is delicious the next day!

If I knew someone who needed a nap mat . . .

2008-10-14T12:09:00.002-05:00

I'd get them one of these! You can pick from a ton of different fabrics and you can get a name monogrammed on it. Plus it has a built in pillow! So cute! I personally love the sock monkey fabric on this one but there are a ton of other cute fabrics! I know my kindergarteners would have loved one of these when I taught kindergarten!

Too cute for words!

2008-10-14T10:14:00.003-05:00

I guess I am biased but I think that my niece is the cutest thing on this planet! I just got back from spending three nights up in NYC with Bee and RHRB and I already miss them so badly! Look at that face!

Dinner tonight . . .

2008-10-14T10:06:00.004-05:00

Tonight for dinner I will be making this from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food cookbook!
I hope it is as good as it looks! I am leaving the arugula out since a certain boy doesn't like it.

Linguine with Turkey Sausage and Peppers

Ingredients
Serves 6
1 pound linguine
1 pound turkey sausage, casings removed
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 yellow (or red) bell peppers, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons arugula, torn
Coarse salt and ground pepper, for seasoning

Directions
Cook linguine. Drain, reserving 1 1/2 cups pasta water; return pasta to pot.
Meanwhile, cook sausage and 2 tablespoons water in a large covered nonstick skillet over medium until fat renders, 5 minutes. Uncover; raise heat to medium-high. Brown sausage, breaking it up with a spoon, 7 minutes.
Add garlic, bell peppers, and 1/4 cup reserved pasta water; cook until peppers soften, 6 minutes. Add 3/4 cup pasta water and butter; swirl to combine.
Transfer to pot. Add arugula; season with salt and pepper. Toss; add more pasta water as desired. Serve.

I legally changed my name at the DPS yesterday and today I head to the Social Security office to change it on my social security card! The DPS went very smoothly yesterday and I'm crossing my fingers that the SS office will go the same! Then I get to change my name on everything else. I wish it was an easier process, but it's worth it!

Ahh, she is just so cute!

2008-09-12T16:52:00.002-05:00

Bee is not happy that her Aunt B and Uncle P are stuck in Houston waiting for Ike to come!
Oh I hope the power doesn't go out . . .

Ike . . .

2008-09-12T11:18:00.003-05:00

We are getting ready for Ike to come! School was canceled today so lat night we had a little hurricane party with some friends. It's amazing that people aren't freaking out the way they did when Rita came. The roads are actually clear and they were able to refill all of the gas stations over night.
This is what it looks like in Galveston right now! I can't believe that people are even still on the island.
RAR and dad are up in New York visiting RHRB and little baby Bee. They were supposed to come home today but they can't so now PW and I are going to have to face the storm without them. We are about to lock up and head over to their house to face the storm there. Luckily we have some ingredients for queso and a full supply of wine to get us through the night! Cross your fingers we don't blow away!
Our family friend was supposed to be getting married tomorrow and had to cancel her wedding. I feel so bad and know she must be heartbroken! Thanks Ike!

Happy Week Old Birthday Baby Bee!

2008-09-10T10:35:00.003-05:00

Dear Bee,
Happy one week Bee-day. Ha ha!
You will be getting a present when I am up in New York in October!

And the best part (or maybe the dorkiest part) is that your Aunt B has a sweater that matches so we will be twins! After I bought mine and saw on the Old Navy website that they had a tiny one in your size I knew I had to buy it! You also have another present coming that I saw while I was there and had to buy it, but I couldn't find it in your size so you will have to wait till next summer!
I love you,

Aunt B

Fact or opinion

2008-09-04T08:29:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a big day! RHRB had her baby!!! I am so excited to be an aunt though it is killing me that I don't get to see her for a whole month! I hope she doesn't grow up too much!

So yesterday during our morning meeting I posed a probability question to my class. "Will Mrs. W become an aunt today?" 18 kids said yes and 3 (all boys) said no. Later that day we discussed fact and opinion at length. This age is an age where opinion really feels like fact to them!

This morning they were all excited to hear if I was an aunt or not. I let them know by showing them a picture of the baby up on my white board. Of course they all thought she was adorable! So I decided to tie it into our discussion of fact or opinion. I asked them "Fact or opinion, Mrs. W's niece is the cutest baby in the world?" Everyone yelled "opinion" except for one little girl (who is one of the sweetest little girls on the planet, fact) who said "fact" and gave me a smile to let me know she was just siding with me! She gets an A for the day!

These poor kids who have to deal with me getting married and becoming an aunt all within a month of each other!

Hmm, I wonder if my new niece needs a dress with a monkey on it?

Le Cruset, I love you!

2008-08-26T12:32:00.002-05:00

This weekend I picked up this little beauty a long with a few other items left on our registry at Williams Sonoma using some gift cards! Plus WS gives you 10% off all purchases for 6 months after your wedding so I got it for less! I can't wait to use it!
I survived the first day of school and I have a wonderful new class! Lots of free spirits! Tomorrow is my b-day (as well as Mother Theresa's, coincidence, I think not) and today is my father in law's birthday (as well as McCauley Culken) . I get to go spend the afternoon renewing my drivers licence, yuck!

monkey butler service

2008-08-19T14:17:00.002-05:00

God bless the internet. Please click through.

Could this be a useful tool for managing husbands? RRW, please experiment with the PW and get back to me. I'm afraid mine may be too recalcitrant.

Mmm home made banana bread!

2008-08-17T19:03:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I don't mind buying bananas and not eating them because that means they get to turn into banana bread!

Why does it really have to be over?!

2008-08-17T18:31:00.004-05:00

On Friday night I received a slide show from my photographer with about 65 pictures from the wedding day/night. I have since watched it about a million times, no exaggeration. Every time PW walks in and sees me watching it AGAIN he laughs! I wanted to use one photographer and she was unfortunately busy that day. However she was able to hook us up with a photographer who just so happened to be someone who went to our K-12 school. She is amazing and the first time I watched the slide show that she put together I cried my eyes out and have proceeded to cry several times while watching it. Here are a few of the pictures!

Our beautiful church

Just married!
Trying not to wilt from the heat!
One of the best parts of the wedding!
Leaving the reception! I tossed the bouquet when I got to the car instead of stopping the reception to do it and it was so much nicer! I made sure to turn around and aim at one of my best friends!

Our photographer owns her own company called Casa de Camera and she is amazing! Now I cannot wait to see the rest of the pictures from the wedding.

RRR is now RRW

2008-08-16T21:24:00.006-05:00

Well after a long time not posting anything due to wedding stress it's time to put up some pictures from the event that took up all of my time. Our wedding day was pretty much the best day ever. The church was beautiful, the reception was amazing, the food was tasty, the cake was insanely good, the photographer took amazing pictures. It was all good (minus some issues with the florist not living up to her ability). At the country club where we had our reception they make sure that the bride and groom get to sit down and have dinner so as soon as we go there they took us to a private room and let us eat dinner. I think it is such a great idea because we wouldn't have eaten otherwise. Here we are having our private dinner.
Here is a self portrait of me and PW after the wedding on the way up to our hotel room.
When the wedding was over we were not even close to being ready to end the night. So it just so happened that everyone went to the bar in the hotel that we were staying in. So I convinced RAR to go pick up a dress for me to change in to so that I could go hang out. Here is a picture of me and my friend Kev who is about to marry one of my best friends/room mate from college Jen next June! That's Jen in the bottom left.
After a wonderful night spent with our friends and family we got on a plane to Dallas and then to Maui. After 9 hours of flying we got to Maui!!
Our honeymoon was amazing. If you haven't gone to Maui you must make plans to go there right now. We sat by the beach and ate and had some pina coladas. We snorkeled and did some scuba diving. It was wonderful!

I am sad it is all over. 11 months of planning ends up in one day that ends very quickly. An amazing day, but a very fast day. I just got a slide show from my amazing photographer showing a few of the pictures from the wedding. I got it a little over 24 hours ago and have probably watched it over 24 times! I can't wait for the rest of the pictures to be ready to view.

I just finished a week of inservice and have one more week till the kids get to school. PW just had a full day of orientation for his MBA program. The thing that makes me that happiest right now is that PW is officially a Houstonian! No more Southwest flights back and forth!

It's FINALLY here!

2008-08-01T09:57:00.003-05:00

It's wedding time tomorrow! Here is a preview of what my cake will look like, but all white not pink and with a W instead of a M! The cake from Who Made the Cake is SO tasty and I can't wait to have a big slice of the bride's cake and the groom's cake! Now if only I can manage to get some sleep before tomorrow . . .

Babies on the mind!

2008-06-19T20:06:00.006-05:00

Not for me! For my future niece! So I've been looking at baby things online just to see what my amazing new niece will need for when she is born and for Christmas, and New Years Eve, and Valentines Day, etc. Basically I'm excited to buy her some fun things! I have found the cutest website that I could spend WAY too much money on right now! It's called The Letter Tree . I am not going to talk about everything I found because it would be way too long but here are some highlights!
Here is an amazing monkey themed gift set. You get a stuffed monkey, a banana rattle, a blanket (or lovie as they call it, how cute is that?), a sign for the nursery that says "Shh Baby Sleeping", and a cute little basket. Now while I would really like to get this for my niece I think I really just might want it for myself!
Once again, this is something that I love, it is the color that would be appropriate for a niece but is it just something that I want for my babies that I will have one day? It's a set of three burp cloths and the middle one is sock monkeys!!! Niece might receive this but don't tell her that!
And here are some monogrammed baby scrubs. I don't know if Dr. Andrew would find these funny/cute or just stupid but I think they are funny/cute. I might save these till she is walking!
And OH MY GOSH! I can't even get over this! It is a crayon apron! Do you know how much I would have loved this when I was little. As soon as she is old enough to color she will get this from me because I love it so much. Though it might be something I keep at my house for when she visits. That way she can always remember that cool crayon apron that she got to wear at Aunt B and Uncle P's house! I remember I had this blue wooden crayon/craft caddy when I was little that I still to this day remember fondly. I think I got it for my 5th birthday!

And on a note seperate from babies, I think this would be a cute gift to bring to a couples wedding shower. How perfect for a couple that likes to tailgate or entertain. These are beverage coolers that you can gave monogrammed and they even have bottle openers attached to them!

So that is my find of the day! A wonderful new website full of fun gifts for my future niece and friends who will get married soon!

Don't do it!

2008-06-18T20:56:00.003-05:00

I didn't want to do it but unfortunately I found myself at home tonight and nothing was on TV. I am just now remembering that I had wanted to watch part of When Harry Met Sally for the millionth time! Anyway, I got sucked into watching the Lohan "reality" TV show on E! and I have to say that it is awful times ten. Who knew that Lindsey Lohan's sister was recording a record, what, who is going to buy that? She is way too overdone for someone her age and the mom just makes me sad because she thinks that she is still 20 something. In fact, the mother and daughter seem to think that they are the same age. I don't want to be mean about them but I have to, they are just awful! Seriously I just lost about 20 minutes of my life! Should have stuck to HGTV even if I didn't like the show that was on!

8 year olds are great!

2008-06-18T19:13:00.003-05:00

Today I had my bridal portraits taken and I think they went really well. Our photographer is amazing and I can't wait to see them! I tutor the two most adorable little girls from my school on Monday and Wednesdays all this summer and I had enough time to make it today after my portraits. On Monday I had warned them that I would probably have more makeup on than usual and that my hair might look fancy because I was having pictures taken in my wedding dress. When I got to the house today one of the little girls looked at me and asked "Where is your wedding dress?" It was so cute. She thought I was going to be showing up in my wedding dress today! Even after all of the smiling that I had just done, I was so happy to have her put such a big smile on my face!

preppy

2008-06-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

I discovered this superprep blog through the Kate Spade website. Love it!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T19:46:00.002-05:00

Happy Father's Day Dad! I wanted to download some pictures in honor of Father's Day (would've done it for Mother's Day but was deep into the end of the year at school!).
Here are dad and RHRB at our uncle and aunt's wedding when she was the flower girl! Nice stash dad! How cute is little RHRB?!
I love this picture of me and dad! It is one in a series of pictures of us sitting on the deck of our old house. The caption I always give it is "You make the money dad, and give it to me!" Ha ha!
And here I am with dad and RHRB in Hawaii in 2000. Sorry for the bathing suit picture from when I am in college after gaining the freshman 15 and then the sophomore 5! Note the towel hiding the most important parts! I love this picture though because it was such a fun trip and I love the colors in this picture!
Dad and I have always been twins! It is why we always think the other is so good looking. This is at RHRB and Mr. Andrew's wedding in November 2006! Look how cute we are! See, never fails! I limited myself to uploading only 5 pictures because that is all that I could upload at once and I could have uploaded a ton more!
And here is to the future fathers! Here is to my brother in law, "Mr. Andrew" as our dad would call him, who is going to be a dad in about 2 1/2 months! You are are a fun brother in law who I like to hang out with, and apparently drink whiskey with! You are going to be a great dad! (And I might add that you are actually no longer Mr. Andrew but Dr. Andrew!) Look at how much fun we have!
I am so excited for my dad to walk me down the aisle in 48 DAYS!! We have joked about this day since I was little. We have always joked that I would be elbowing dad the whole way down the aisle because he would be saying something that would be intended to annoy me or make me feel embarassed. WARNING DAD-Do not make me elbow you or I will be blushing and beet red in all of my wedding pictures! I know it will be perfect and maybe we will stage some elbowing pictures just to be silly!

A job I would NOT be good at!

2008-06-12T17:10:00.003-05:00

PW and I are lucky enough to be getting some furniture reupholstered so that our place will all go together and look semi-adult vs. looking like a 27 year old girl lives there alone! One of the things I had planned to do was to reupholster a bench that I was lucky to inherit from my grandmother. I spent about 4 hours reupholstering it on Tuesday and I am really excited about it. It took the majority of my time to rip off the old upholstery. Once I had it all off the hardest part was finishing the corners so that they didn’t look horrible. I know it doesn’t look professional but I am actually pretty excited for how well my first home upholstery project went! Here are some pictures!

Here is a close up of what the checks look like. I think the bench needs some pillows on it. I went and looked for some today but found nothing . . .

Here is the bench with the swatches of the other fabrics we are using. Thank goodness I am marrying a boy who understands my love of the color blue! I think he was not a fan of the checks at first but I love the checks. The print on the left will be for two wing back chairs that we are inheriting from PW’s mom. The big check is what will be table skirt for a round end table I have. And the cream color fabric will be an arm chair and ottoman and the piping will be in the small check! I can’t wait to see it all put together!
So I was going to do another at home reupholstery job on some dining chairs that I inherited from my grandmother but after my bench job I changed my mind. First off I have always loved chairs that have covers with little skirts. Second the chairs are not straight on all sides and I just didn’t want to waste fabric doing a horrible job. SO we are going to get little chair covers like the ones on the Shabby Chic website (below) that are oh so cute. We are going to get them made in the small check fabric that the bench is in!

Front of skirt:
Back of skirt (ties on with little bows!):

I love Shabby Chic and if I was able to continue living in a space filled with light fabric and painted furniture I would! Trust me, if it were up to me I would be painting that bench an ivory color and destressing it! Unfortunately I have to agree with PW that it might just be a touch too girly for him. However when we have a house big enough to do it I will have my Shabby Chic room!

US Post Office . . . you need to give your employees some intelligent information so that they can help people

2008-06-06T21:31:00.004-05:00

. . . otherwise you are just goint to be critisized for your lack of information, lack of help, and lack of intelligence and those of you who are good in those areas, I am sorry. I don't want you to have to make up for those who can't do their job well. Just be glad you don't work with the miserable women who work at the West Gray location in Houston, Texas!! Let's not think about their lack of help or intelligence I am sure that one day someone can help them to achieve that (seriously if you are in Houston, go somewhere else . . . hint Greenbriar)

Oh, look below, pretty!

So, I guess I need to update the fact that the down town US postal employees that helped us earlier this week were one in a million. Today we got the rest of the million who apparently hate life and don't want to help out anyone or make life easier for anyon. With that said, we had a horrible chase today looking to find a post office that would let us hand cancel the invitations so that we could get them out. West Gray said "We don't do that or let you do that but down town does" After we drove down town we found out once again that the Houston West Gray Post Office is awful and ignorant. Sorry, I don't want to be mean but they have told us so many false bits of info that I will NEVER return there. So after going to down town and finding out that they won't do it but if we leave our invitations on a counter the woman in the pasport office would "get to them if she got a chance and if not she would send them upstairs" yawn. Seriously, I'd rather leave my invitations on the street and hope they would get to the correct place the way I wanted rather than trust this lady. So, after reading numerous blogs about brides going to post offices and challenging the employes who eventually let them hand cancel, I wish I lived in you city. We finally found the best post office in Houston. The same one that was used to hand cancel RHRB's invitations yet we didn't go to them originally because they used to use red ink. Well, they use black now. We love them and I would love to go back and give the woman who not only helped us get a hand canceler but got us and EXTRA one, and give her a nice present. Seriously I wish I could tell her thank you in a good way.

Other than that, PW is on his bachelor weekend this weekend. They are in Austin and I just hope it is going ok! Tomorrow mom, dad, and I drive to Dallas to go to our last girly shower.

Today before he headed out to his big weekend PW picked up our wedding bands and above is a shot of them! I am so in love with both of them. PW's says RRR 8-2-08 PBW on the inside! I want to get my engagement ring engraved with that one day since I can't get my wedding band engraved with anything. I LOVE my wedding band. I haven't even tried it on yet but I helped design it and it looks just like what I wanted. Yay!

I am sorry to be mean toward US Postal workers. It is unfortunate that the employees of that company seem to be unwilling to help the public. I realize that this is not true of all US Postal workers but I have found this to be true with three of the locations I have tried out. I have also read many blogs that have had the same info that I have so at least it isn't just in Houston!

2008-06-04T13:04:00.002-05:00

Get ready for a very boring post to anyone other than the people who are getting married and needing to send out their invitations right now while the new, correct price wedding stamps are unavailable! The past two weeks have been spent thinking about how to get around the fact that we wanted to have the invitations reach guests by June 2nd but the stamps done come out till June 10th. The new wedding stamps are green for the RSVP card and orange for the actual invitation. First of all what man decided on these two colors for wedding stamps? I like the green but the orange? Come on!

So after a thinking hard about our options we discovered the dragonfly stamp below which is just a little more than the actual postage that we need. We went to THREE post offices looking for these stamps. Finally at the downtown post office we were able to talk to an intelligent person who was able to tell us that they haven't been delivered to post offices yet. They tried to tell me at first that "they weren't available till June 10" which I knew was untrue for two reasons. First, the internet says they are available now and have been since May 19. Second, Miss Tiramisu from Weddingbee has already posted pictures of her invitations with the dragonfly stamps on them! I sent some quick messages to Miss Tiramisu and was quickly answered with very helpful information. If you haven't gone to Weddingbee yet, you must go look through it!

So we are using the liberty bell for the RSVP cards and the dragonflies for the invitations. I like the colors of the dragonfly and I like that the liberty bell says "forever" on it which is a good message for a wedding!
So, we got online and ordered our dragonfly stamps yesterday. And this morning I received an email saying that they have shipped. So if all goes well, the invitations should go out on Friday! I would really like to call the lady from the US Post offices's 1-800 number who told me that I couldn't order the dragonfly stamps to let her know that you can in fact order them so that when the next person calls she can give out correct information! Needless to say I have had it with the people who work behind the desk at post offices. They just don't care and if they don't know the real answer they just tell you what they want without checking. Though if you are in Houston and need postal help go to the downtown post office because the employees there were friendly, helpful, and double checked information to get it correct. Very different from the other post office experiences. Oh and the best thing about the down town post office. . . it is mere minutes from Ninfa's on Navigation and so RAR and I got to go get margaritas!

So luckily it is summer time and I can stress out and worry about something as silly as stamps. It makes me feel a little crazy but I want my invitations to look nice all the way down to the most minute details! And I have to say that I've come across MANY brides who have blogged about the same issue so it makes me feel a little bit better!

I am sorry if I have put anyone to sleep with this post! I know RAR will appreciate it since she went through it all with me!

sock monkey crib bedding

2008-06-04T12:33:00.001-05:00

Okay, this is kind of wacky, and I would never pick it, but I also kind of love it, including the red Jenny Lind crib! It's my favorite brown-and-red color scheme.

bird and banner

2008-06-03T18:23:00.002-05:00

In my ceaseless baby research, I somehow came across this graphic design team that makes amazing wedding invitations. Their home page makes me very happy.

stationery for dogs

2008-06-03T13:46:00.002-05:00

Click through and then on "products" and then on the word "dogs."

Cute or disturbing?

Last full day of class!

2008-05-28T12:48:00.002-05:00

Today is my last full day of class! Tomorrow the kids leave at 12:45 and then I stay and pack up the rest of my room! So in order to fully celebrate my last full day I did a little online shopping while the kids were out of the room!
I bought this dress from J Crew on sale! I usually don't buy things online because I like to try them on but I love this and I am willing to go get it altered if I need to. I have a wedding to go to in June, one in August, and one in September and I think I could wear it to all of them if I wanted because they are all different groups!
I already own this dress in a coral color and in blue. I love it so much! I suggest that everyone goes out and gets it in at least one color right now! RHRB has it and is 6 months pregnant and I swear it looks good on a pregnant person AND a non pregnant person. Hard to believe, but true!

Thank you J Crew for taking all of my money. I know I will wear the black dress till it is worn out but goodness can't you leave me with some money? And I didn't even get to use the teacher discount because it was online and these dresses aren't in the Houston store. Oh and while we are at it J Crew, can't you make the Houston store good again?

Here is something I found online today. You must visit The Cookie Sandwich Co. and look at the delicious cookies that they sell. I want to try every single one of them!

Oh and thank you RHRB for directing us to Munki Munki! I really want to buy something from them! Perhaps the bride pj's!

Embosser "fun"!

2008-05-21T08:05:00.009-05:00

UPDATE: After waiting oh so "patiently" I got the monogram proof from Wilshire and this is it! I really like it. I was also excited because they send you a proof with three different sizes that you can pick from. If the rest of the order/delivery goes this well I will be a forever fan of this company!

Since I have decided that I would like to make the programs for the wedding I have been on the hunt for an embosser that fits a few criteria. First it must have an extra deep area to insert the paper since our programs are 5 1/4 inches square and I want the monogram to be in the center. Second it must come from a company that has nice images or fonts to use for the cover of the program.

I met RAR at a nice pharmacy near my school yesterday to check out their selection of wedding guest books and I asked the lady working in the paper area about the embossers that they sell. I explained to her how there needed to have an extra deep area in order to place the image in the middle of the program. I was quickly told that no such embosser existed. Since I had already seen that it does in fact exist on the internet (love the internet) I explained to her that yes, it does exist I guess just not with the company that they sell.

Next RAR and I headed to the store that sold us the wedding invitations. I won't go into it because I'll just get angry but the girls working there were very rude, acted like nobody makes their own programs, and then gave us a tacky suggestion for the program cover. Don't be snooty if you are going to follow it up with tacky, you are discrediting yourself. After a bad experience with ordering the invitation from them and after yesterday RAR and I are boycotting!

So we went home and went onto Wilshire Graphic Press where I originally saw the right sized embosser online and we bought one. The ladies on Weddingbee seem to like the company and you get an email with the proof of what your image will look like before they put the order through! I am "patiently" waiting for that email!

I decided to have our monogram in the font called "Monogram" which is the top left font below. So instead of GFL it will be RWP!

We also ordered the programs online from Crane and if you know me you know that I like to have decisions made so I feel good! And I'm excited because now PW and I have a nice embosser that we can use on stationary for thank you notes and for the rest of our life!

Grades are in! The kids are finished on May 29th at 12:45 and I am done on May 30th! Everyone is ready for summer. Only 4 1/2 days to have the sign below on my door! In August I will have to make a new one. The kids are very concerned with me changing anything that has my name on it! Some even want to start calling me by my new name now. Today during our morning meeting one little boy raised his hand and asked "When are you going to have a baby?" I told him not for a while to which he responded "Well my mom had me when she was 31." So I told him that gives me 4 years and quickly steered away from talking to 8 year olds about having babies!

Waiting for August 2nd!

2008-05-18T20:17:00.002-05:00

Oh, if I could be crazy and have a fancy dress to wear for the last bit of my wedding and to go out in afterward I would pick this Oscar de la Renta dress. I'll tell myself though that I can't get this because we are leaving early on Sunday morning so it would be crazy to go out after the wedding!

And William Yeoward, why do you have to be so mean and make this Grace cup so expensive? I want this for no real reason other than I think it is beautiful but I do think it is just to insanely expensive! And sorry for the horrible picture! I looked for a good one on the internet and I gues a tiny picture is what I get!

So I've been thinking seriously about making my own programs for the wedding cerimony. I think I have decided that I will do it for sure since I will have June and July off and why shouldn't I put in the time to make something of my own?! I want to use these Crane do it yourself programs but instead of printing so that you read them with the ribbon to the side the ribbon would be on the top and you'd open it up!
While my parents were away recently I fed the wonderful cat Tipper and one day I showed up and found a few things on the front doorstep (I have to have things sent there because FedEx and UPS apparently can't get into my gate)! I found a book that I pre ordered a few months ago on Amazon, I love Amazon! I found a jean jacket I ordered from Old Navy to replace the one I had for almost 10 years that I loved and lost recently!! AND I found a wedding present, which is always fun! I found our Cuisinart 11 cup food processor which is so exciting because now I can make RAR's apple pie just like she makes it!
And to end it all. I spent part of this weekend cleaning out my closet and my guest closet to make room for all of PW's things that will be coming here in June! This is a picture of clothes that I will be taking to Good Will that will hopefully be put to good use and not just sit in my closet gathering dust any more! I found clothes that I got circa 1998! Oh and some shoes that I am kind of embarassed that I ever owned. Thank goodness that trends change! Apparently super chunky shoes were very popular around 2001. It is appropriate on my guest room bed with my college sheets though!

I also spent a while vacuuming today and realized that my cordless vacuum cleaner just isn't good enough. I need to find a cleaner that is not insanely expensive but does a good job on wood floors as well as carpet!

PS-Notice all of the black shoes. I really didn't own any brown shoes or clothes that would go with brown shoes till I was a senior in college or older!

PPS-Only 7 1/2 days till the kids are on summer vacation and I am alone in my classroom to organize and pack up for the summer!

Thank you J Crew!

2008-04-30T10:02:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I heard that J Crew is now giving a 15% discount to all teachers. While it sounded too good to be true I had to go in and find out for myself! So after my first dress fitting yesterday I made RAR and RHRB go to J Crew with me. I was SO pleased to find out that it is very true! So as a little early present to myself (next week is Teacher Appreciation week) I bought some things that I will be able to enjoy in Maui!
I haven't bought a bathing suit in about two years and have been searching for good ones knowing I will want something cute for Hawaii. I forgot how miserable trying on bathing suits was. I think it is even worse than trying on jeans which I really dislike!
I ended up getting two new bikinis! The first one is a pink searsucker halter binkini that is very cute. RHRB did not like it as much as the other one because she is not used to seeing me in pink as I am generally in blue! The top looks kind of funny in this picture and I didn't know how it would look once I had it on but it ended up looking very nice on and it is very comforatble.

The second one is a multi colored string bikini that is so cute and has little ruffles along the edges! And yes, I look just like that J Crew model in it! Ha!
And then because I knew I would be enjoying the food and the Pina Coladas I got a little skirt to cover up when I feel the need to be covered up!
Thank you J Crew! Thank you for helping teachers look a little cuter each day by giving us a 15% discount! So next time you go into J Crew and you are a teacher make sure you have your school ID with you because all you need is your ID and an email address to get the 15% off!!

My first dress fitting went very well! I REALLY wish I could talk about my dress to everyone I talk to or run in to, most of all Philip. It is SO hard not telling him what it looks like or showing him pictures. He said he had the same problem when he bought my engagement ring, but he didn't have to wait months and months till I could see it! It is so pretty and so perfect and I can't wait till I get to wear it for real!

100 days!

2008-04-24T09:34:00.004-05:00

It is officially 100 days until PW and I get married! And only 101 days till we are here:

That means only 100 days to finish all of the planning for the wedding. Only 100 days days left of being a Miss. Less than 100 days till PW and I live in the same city! Only 100 days till I get wedding cake! And many more things that will happen in only 100 days!

And while we are counting down . . . after today only 23 days until summer break!

Quick trip to Dallas

2008-04-23T08:38:00.006-05:00

Last weekend I headed up to Dallas to have my first shower up there! RAR joined me on Saturday so that she could make it to the shower but I headed up on Friday night! I flew in on my usual 5:30 Southwest flight and actually got in on time for a change! Philip and I headed to our very favorite restaurant Tillman's Roadhouse which is in the Bishop Arts District. We originally discovered Tillman's on a double date last Spring and instantly fell in love with it. This restaurant has the most interesting decor of any I've ever seen. It is very rustic with wooden animal heads on the wall and then very elegant with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

The food is down home comfort food that is to die for! After visiting Tillman's too many times where we left moaning and groaning from overeating, Philip and I decided to split our favorite the BBQ Ribs served over macaroni and cheese.

After our delicious dinner we decided to go for dessert, something we haven't done since the first time we ate there. We decided to get the peanut butter cookie sundae! It was SO good. The bottom layer was a huge peanut butter cookie stuck to the plate with peanutbutter. On top of that was banana ice cream and on top of that was two smaller chocolate chip cookies. This was all topped off with chocolate sauce. And if that wasn't enough they provided a side of extra chocolate sauce served in a creamer. Philip and I love peanut butter! It was SO good!

Saturday was the big shower! Here is a picture of my future mother in law, myself, and the mother of the bride before the guests arrived.

This is me begining to open my wonderful gifts!

We received so many wonderful gifts. If I wanted to post about all of the wonderful ones I would have to post about all of them! The shower was a recipe shower so I received a recipe with each gift which was fun. My aunt gave me this wonderful Apilco duck terrine which I LOVE!

I had many people give me the blue ruffled Amile Henry bakers that I was registered for!
RAR gave me the turkey platter that goes with our Spode! This means that I can be in charge of Thanksgiving now!
Philip's mom gave us a cooking class for two at Sur la Table which I know Philip and I are going to really enjoy!

After the shower we went and bought Philip's wedding band. Isn't it pretty? Just kidding. I couldn't find a picture of what we picked for him but I did find this crazy ring! Can you imagine wearing all of that weight on you hand? It looks like something that Mr. T might own!

RAR and I flew back on Saturday afternoon so that we could go to an engagement party for a girl who I have known since I was 3 years old! On Sunday we went to meet with my friend's mom to talk about flower girl dresses. We finally picked a dress that I am so excited about. It looks like the dress below but we are going to have it made sleeveless. Houston in August is no place to make little girls wear something with sleeves! Oh my gosh! And they had strands of little pearl necklaces and bracelets for your flower girls that I of course love! It's never too early to get started on pearls!

It was a very fun and productive weekend! I only wish RHRB was there to share it with us. Luckily she will be flying down to Austin on Friday to meet me and my friends for my Bachelorette party this weekend! And after that we will get an entire week of her in Houston!

Oh and some very exciting news is that my dress is here finally and I get to go to my first fitting on Tuesday! Yay!

ML Good Job!

2008-04-17T20:15:00.005-05:00

Ugh! I should be grading away right now. I really should, but I feel like I am in a coma after our meeting with the florist today. So instead I am going to gear up to grade by posting these three pictures. Monique Lhuillier's Spring 2009 collection of wedding dresses is now up on brides.com and I have to say that there are some great ones. In fact I think that there are better dresses than what she has had the past few seasons. Here are my top three dresses in order:

This first one is amazing! I would like to try this on even though I am totally in love with the dress I have bought!

This second one is beautiful! I don't think this would look wonderful on me but I do think it is very dainty and pretty!

I love this third one. I really can't imagine myself in this one but there is something I love about the ruffle on the bottom!

Ok, the Office is over and I need to go downstairs and grade. Yuck! Yuck, yuck, yuck!

On a fun note, I have a wedding shower on Saturday and I can post pictures of some of my gifts for my one reader who will not be at the shower! And I guess with that said, someone (RHRB or RAR) needs to post something soon or this is going to become my wedding blog!!

Shoes, shoes, shoes!!!

2008-04-10T21:34:00.003-05:00

My big idea for my wedding was to have my something blue be my shoes! Blue is my favorite color and it only seems fitting that I add that as my something blue. I found these amazing dream shoes on the Barneys New York web site but have given in to the fact that they are unrealistic! They are pretty though!

So these Kate Spade shoes were a pair that I saw online and decided that they were perfect. The name of these shoes is "Lovely" which is great to begin with. The color is perfect with my dress and they are good for an August wedding.

Then I went to Nordstroms and found these. Ok, the big crystal on the toe is cheesy and I'm completely aware of this. However, it appears to be easily removable AND it looks like we could add a piece of lace from my mom's (RAR) dress OR some sort of added detail on the toe using some blue ribbon I bought because it is my favorite color of blue! So not only would I get pretty wedding shoes but I could have the little bit of blue I was wishing for! They look very white here but the ones that we bought are more of an ivory color which is perfect with my dress!

Then when the reception has been going on for a while and I am ready for a break I can slip into my new "babies"! Last time I was in Dallas I had a great lunch with PW at Mi Cocina and then we walked over to the Tory Burch store to check out the Reva flats and I picked these up as they are perfect with a dress I am wearing to a shower in June! So, if my feet are killing me at the wedding, and it doesn't kill RAR, perhaps I will slip into these!

I am thinking about . . .

2008-04-10T14:39:00.004-05:00

I am having the hardest time thinking about anything but these things today:

NINFA'S

Mmmmm! I love Ninfa's! I wish that was for dinner tonight. And while I'm busy wishing I wish that there were no calories in the food or the Ninfaritas! For those of you wondering, if I went there for dinner tonight I would order a chicken Taco a la Ninfa and a margarita (or two!).

THE WEDDING

No this isn't my wedding dress but before I found "the one" I thought this could be it! I would say that I am at the point where the wedding is on my mind the majority of the time. Can it please just come? I'm ready!

FLOWERS FOR THE WEDDING
We haven't decided on flowers for the wedding yet and I feel like all I've done for the past few weeks is look at flowers on the internet and in books and magazines to get ideas! By the way, I love this bouquet!

PHILIP

Yep, I think I'm pretty ready for him to move down here! This is a picture from Cinco de Mayo last year at our friends' party! Notice the margarita in my hand? I wish it was there now!

SLEEP

I am SO tired! School has been very draining this year. I love my class to death but there are other things that have just made it a loooong year! And by the way these are the linens that we registered for at Restoration Hardware!

Monkey Cupcakes

2008-04-08T21:03:00.004-05:00

For all of our two or three blog readers (who by the way already know this) here is where the name Monkey Cupcake comes from!

Part from my love of monkeys! We have Mayme and Sissy to thank for the start of the monkey obsession. Christmas Eve 1999 they presented us with stuffed monkeys that were so cute and it all started from there. I now have people give me stuffed monkeys, monkey posters, monkey erasers, monkey stationary, and many more fun monkey items!

The other part "cupcakes" comes from the excellence of a good cupcake. The particular ones in the picture were banana cupackes with chocolate buttercreme frosting. The cupcake part wasn't my favorite but I still make the buttercreme frosting if I make cupcakes!

Ask anyone (especially my neighbors in the Tri Delt house junior year of college) "I like monkeys!!!"

WOW..someone wiped my blog entry off the face of the internet!

2008-03-31T22:27:00.002-05:00

Good going ye who seek to stop the TRUTH about a washing machine!

However the TRUTH IS THE TRUTH. I'm amazed this blog that barely anyone reads except its writers has been stopped from showing up on a google search about Whirlpool washing machine problems.

AMAZING!

DO NOT BUY WHIRLPOOL DUET ... DO NOT BUY WHIRLPOOL DUET

2008-03-31T15:14:00.002-05:00

Hopefully some people have found my post about the NIGHTMARE I have been through with my WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE.
I didn't give all of the incredibly frustrating details in my attempt to have my machine fixed. Just know that I used one of the WHIRLPOOL RECOMMENDED REPAIR COMPANIES in Houston to fix it. THEY COULD NOT FIX IT, so their response after taking hundreds of my dollars was to say that there was nothing wrong with it. Despite that statement, THIS

WHIRLPOOL DUET washer WILL NOT RINSE THE SUDS FROM THE CLOTHES.
If it's NOT RINSING THE SUDS......THEN.......IT'S NOT RINSING THE SOIL from the clothes.

Therefore, The CLOTHES REMAIN FULL of SUDS......and DIRTY WATER.

WHIRLPOOL WILL DO NOTHING FOR ME.....................except set me up with

ANOTHER "RECOMMENDED" repair company.........who would then, and I'm only

guessing.......take more of my money and declare the machine - fine....................

WOULD YOU BELIEVE..............the recommended repair company sent me a SATISFACTION CARD in the mail today???

sample questions on survey:

Did we repair your appliance in a timely manner? Let's see ........... four months, and you didn't fix anything........ANSWER ..... NO

Was your appliance repaired to your satisfaction? Ummmmmmmmm.....NO.
You DID NOT FIX my Whirlpool Duet machine. YOU SAID IT WASN'T BROKEN, after hundreds of dollars of "repairs" that changed nothing about its operation, and after THREE MONTHS of working on it, appointments spread out over weeks, because that's when you could "get here". And of course the last extra month that you ignored me after you said you would call me back and talk about WHIRLPOOL and what you could do with warranties in such a situation. I HAD TO CALL YOU BACK ....... AFTER YOU SAID YOU WOULD GET BACK TO ME ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH, and that the boss, who was away, would get back to me the following Monday when he returned.

They say THEY VALUE ME AS A CUSTOMER, and they LOOK FORWARD TO SERVING ME AGAIN.

I can only assume that they run their business with the same lack of detail (none) that they use in sending out these surveys to people whom they KNOW ARE NOT SATISFIED. Gee, isn't there a file on me yet that says "WE WERE UNABLE TO REPAIR her WHIRLPOOL DUET"?......IF SHE CALLS....DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE.

The OTHER BIG QUESTION I have is - WHY DO the LOCAL REPAIRMEN HAVE TO CALL

THE WHIRLPOOL HOTLINE to get someone who can tell them what might be WRONG

with the WHIRLPOOL DUET when IT DOESN'T WORK? They are a REPAIR COMPANY! Is

this WHIRLPOOP (oops, typo....but not a bad name) DUET such a complicated mess that no

one but some geniuses on a hotline can possibly be taught how to repair it, and then not even, as

in my case? I have NEVER had a washing machine repairman, in the 30 years of owning

washing machines up until this WHIRLPOOP (uh oh, I did it again....totally not on purpose)

DUET who HAD TO CALL a "HOTLINE" to know what was wrong with a machine. NOT

ONCE......NEVER.

SO:

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE

DO NOT BUY the WHIRLPOOL DUET

WARNING DO NOT BUY Whirlpool Duet washing machine

2008-03-28T16:11:00.002-05:00

If this helps just one person to NOT BUY this machine...THE WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE....then it would be good. I wish I could make a site that would make it to everyone who would consider buying a WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE, so I could WARN them NOT TO BUY this machine.
WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE DO NOT BUY
WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE
WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE
WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE DO NOT BUY
WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE
WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE
WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE DO NOT BUY
WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE

DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE

REPEAT DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE, THE WHIRLPOOL DUET

The house I bought under construction was built for this machine to fit under a counter in the laundry. Oh how I WISH I had CHECKED the INTERNET before purchasing it. OH THE PROBLEMS that the WHIRLPOOL DUET does have.
PROBLEMS PROBLEMS PROBLEMS
The repair company recommended in the WHIRLPOOL DUET manufacturer's guide (via a phone number) CANNOT FIX it.
The WHIRLPOOL HOTLINE DOES NOT GIVE ME ACCESS to their TECHNICIANS to ask them questions.
They say they will set up an appointment for me for another repair company, the ONE THEY REALLY RECOMMEND. I wish they would have really recommended them before I chose the one on the list recommended by the store that actually sold me the machine. Yes, I have tried so hard to do all the right things with this machine, that I wanted to use a company that was not only on the whirlpool list, but that had a good reputation with the store selling the machine. So I went to the store and they didn't hesitate to recommend Royal Appliance.
It's funny, but they didn't even have the WHIRLPOOL DUET on the selling floor anymore.
TOO MANY PROBLEMS, possibly?
This week I went back to the appliance store to ask about the machine, and told them of my problem with the repair company (whose name I did not mention) not being able to fix it,and they didn't hesitate to ask,"oh, was it A and E?"........mental note to self......."never use A and E"
They said WHIRLPOOL SHOULD REPLACE THE MACHINE IF THEIR RECOMMENDED REPAIR COMPANY COULD NOT FIX IT.
Well, their recommended repair company says there is nothing wrong with the machine. Isn't that convenient? Do you think they could be working together?
WHIRLPOOL makers of the WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE TO THEIR RECOMMENDED REPAIR COMPANIES, "Uhhhhh, if you can't fix a machine, just say it's not broken....yeah, that's good. Then we're all off the hook!!!!!!!! You, the repair company can rack up hundreds of dollars of repair fees, while not even fixing the machine, and neither you nor we - WHIRLPOOL are responsible. GENIOUS!!
And when the customer calls to say the WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE doesn't work, despite over $500 worth of repairs, WE WILL ACTUALLY OFFER TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH ANOTHER REPAIR COMPANY ON OUR LIST, so they, too, can rack up hundreds of dollars more worth of useless repairs. And we will tell the customer that this second repair company is the one that should have been called IN THE FIRST PLACE, because it's our number one recommended repair company, despite the fact that we do not dIstinguish them as such via our phone information. It's funny how their number one recommended repair company has a bad reputation with Factory Builders in Houston, the store of purchase of the WHIRLPOOL DUET.
I really wonder if they would make me go through all five of their recommended repair companies if they systematically could not fix the WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE.
I will never know.......it's tempting......because this is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ....spending so much money to get the thing and $ 500 more to try to get it repaired, not to mention the inconvenience of the entire situation.
Oh how I long for my Sears Kenmore out in the garage, where I had to battle all the wildlife Houston has to offer (except for the coyote, thank goodness). I had to fight rain and cold and heat, but at least I could soak things, or add an item to the machine more than five minutes after starting, and I could tell if the machine was really getting the temperature water it was supposed to, AND my clothes were always clean. Not so with the WHIRLPOOL DUET.

DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE, THE WHIRLPOOL DUET WASHING MACHINE

The internet is full of problems that people have with this machine. My husband thinks any positive reviews were placed there by Whirlpool.

Our PROBLEM IT WILL NOT RINSE SUDS OUT OF THE CLOTHES

HENCE, OUR CLOTHES DO NOT EVER GET CLEAN!

REPEAT DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THIS MACHINE!

THE WHIRLPOOL DUET = NIGHTMARE

And the most important thing about today is . . .

2008-03-13T15:24:00.001-05:00

It's Mom's Birthday! Happy Birthday mom! We love you!

Go Coogs!

2008-03-13T07:09:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we found out that PW got into the University of Houston for his MBA!!! And since I fully support U of H after going there to get my masters I thought I would give them a little tribute! GO COOGS!

If you had told me in high school or even the begining of college that I would have gone to the University of Houston for grad school I wouldn't have believed you. I really didn't know a lot obout it. However, I loved grad school and wouldn't mind going back (is it time for a PHD? You can call me Dr.!). I loved the friends I made there and I loved a majority of my professors, especially the one who was able to get me into a great school to do the student teaching portion of my degree. We don't know for sure if PW will end up there but I think it is a really good starting point! GO COOGS!

Wedding Inspiration!

2008-03-11T10:23:00.004-05:00

As of today there are 144 days till the wedding! Yes, I have a day by day count down going on, I am that excited! My new favorite past time that seems to be sucking away pretty much every spare second I have is looking at other people's blogs to find some good inspiration. It is amazing all that there is out there. I tend to stick to the wedding blogs that somehow involve the words Southern or Preppy! It is amazing to see all of the wonderful ideas that people have!

One of my absolute favorite blogs to look at is Snippet and Ink! I love looking at the way all of the different elements are put together to create unique weddings.

I recently found these two pictures that have some elements that go along with what I have discussed with our florist. I absolutely love this cake! I like that the swags are similar to the ones on our china! I have already picked out my bride's cake and love it but I am unsure of my grooms cake. I am wondering if the cute greenery swags would look good on a square shaped, two tier, chocolate cake?

We had also discussed putting floral arrangements in urns instead of glass or silver vases. We have also discussed including topiaries. I found this cute picture that shows both!

This is the table fabric we will hopefully use on the tables and I love it! It is not what I ever thought I would want seeing that I am obsessed with the color blue but I get excited every time I see the swatch!

Our florist is going for an "English Country Garden" look. I could have and would have never come up with that idea for our wedding but I love everything we have talked about and I can't wait to go back and talk to her more!

And in my search for wedding inspiration on the internet I came across this funny blog, called The Groom's Truth, that is about wedding planning but from the groom's perspective. I forwarded it to PW and he claims that he thinks it is very funny!

Things that I am loving!

2008-02-18T13:55:00.003-06:00

I recently have been on a dress buying binge! I love dresses because they are so comfortable and they generally fit me so much better than pants do. I recently bought two dresses from J. Crew that I LOVE! I bought this dress first in blue and then I saw it in the black with white polka dots and knew I needed to have it! I just need to figure out where to get some cute red strappy heels now! I don't think I can wear the blue one till it is Spring time but I think I can wear the black and white one if the temperatre gets warm again (even if I don't have cute red strappy heels)!

J. Crew is one of my favorite places to shop but for the past year or so I have not been excited about what they have had. Luckily for me (but not my credit card) they are back in action with the cuteness! Look how wonderful this blue dress is! If you can't see you must go to the website and look so that you can see the wonderful little dots all over the fabric. I want to wear it to my linen shower in June but I'm not sure I will be able to since there is a good chance I will have already worn it a million times by then! If it is warm enough, I will definitely wear it to church on Easter!
Lately I've also been having a furniture bug! It is ridiculous because I might not even be in my home in 6 months but I keep wanting to get things to finish decorating it. I am in love with this classic break front from Cottage Home but I think I would want it in a different color, probably a wood stain! I think it would be perfect to house all of the pretty things I (we, sorry PW) could possibly get for the wedding! I am pretty obsessed with the Cottage Home web site right now and look at it every once in a while and imagine where I could put things!

On one last happy note it is almost Spring Break when I get to go visit my wonderful sister RHRB and her husband AMB in NYC with PW. That is a lot of initials! Only 17 1/2 more days of school and I will have a whole week and two days off!

heirloom knitting

2008-02-15T12:36:00.001-06:00

Um...did you see that Martha had yarn made out of PawPaw's hair?!

Waiting . . .

2008-02-13T13:06:00.003-06:00

Right now we are playing the waiting game to see if PW will get in to SMU to get his MBA or . . .

will he get into Rice to get his MBA starting this August!

I have to say this is more miserable that waiting to hear about getting into college or even when I applied for grad school. This is huge news for us because it will dictate where we will live next year, Dallas or Houston! It will decide if I get to keep the job I have now or if I will be applying for a new job. It will decide if I get to keep my home (and find some room for PW's things) or if I will be selling it and looking for a place up in Dallas! This is the week that letters are going out so basically I am just waiting to get the phone call to say that the letters have arrived.

On a different note I am waiting on something else (that is for sure not as important but very exciting). It is Girl Scout Cookie time! I have bought cookies from a third grader and from a second grader that is in the other second grade class. They continue to give me updates on the status of the cookies (they are still not in yet) and promising me that they will be in soon!

I attempted to put a picture here of my very favorite Girl Scout Cookie, the Samoa, yet blogger wanted it at the top of my post and not right here so unfortunately there will be no picture!

Ok, back to work to hopefully get my mind off of the grad school stuff . . .

Want it! NEED it!

2008-02-04T09:54:00.001-06:00

OH MY GOSH!

This might be the cutest thing on the planet!

Where I spend my time . . .

2008-02-04T09:31:00.000-06:00

This is my desk where I grade and lesson plan and procrastinate!

This is a view looking towards the reading carpet and the desks!

I am procrastinating from grading papers right now and have recently found myself obsessed with looking at other blogs. Well that made me realize that I have not posted anything since mid December! So since I should be working I thought I would post pictures of where I spend most of my time. Right now I am reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the kids and they LOVE it! I am really excited by their enthusiasm! I loved teaching Kindergarten but I am so happy that I was able to move up to second grade this year! Here are some pictures of where I spend my days!

I must say that I am very frustrated with formating this blog. I had placed the text at the top of the post and tried to insert the photos at the bottom but it would not let me. Plus it erased a picture on its own. So far, not impressed with the inability to do things how you want to and the fact that the blog picks how it wants things to look . . .

blog cooking

2008-02-01T12:13:00.000-06:00

I did a bit of cooking from food blogs last night and it was deemed a success. I hope someday I will learn how to do photos, but for now..........just words.
I first attempted Ruth Reichl's chocolate cake posted by a blogger on Serious Eats. I left out the brown sugar......she said to add the sugar (not sugarS), and I had only measured the white, when the baby (RRR)called with some exciting news. I'm somewhat dislexic when it comes to reading recipes in the first place, and then when interrupted.....well, only the white sugar was added , then the eggs......one at a time.......then......oh, no.....the brown sugar! When was that supposed to go in? So I added it after the eggs. Was that the reason the cake came out so flat? I don't know. I had started the icing, but it was time to EAT. I suggested having the cake first (Cake for Dinner!!!), but the baby said to do it in the right order. Good baby.
So next I made 24 Boxes' Roasted Squash and Black Bean Quesadillas. Because I had seen The Wednesday Chef substitute canned pumpkin for roasted squash in a pie, I decided I could do the same for this recipe (aren't ya'll proud of me!). It worked wonderfully, and everyone was happy. I put together the quesadillas and the baby did the cooking. Don't move, baby (was that subliminal?) It was then that I discovered a note at the end of the recipe to "make roasted tomato salsa to go with the quesadillas"....... Salsa in a jar would have to do. Along with sour cream, it was a crowd pleaser.
Next, the icing for the cake.....it seemed like too little in the mixing bowl, but it was just right for the cake (I halved both recipes). The icing was not sweet enough for the baby (she suggested her own favorite buttercream to go with THIS cake, which she loved), but MJR and I enjoyed it a lot.
We were all stuffed! So......thanks food bloggers for our great dinner!
PS I also had a butter tasting yesterday! After investigating cultured and uncultured butter on the internet and then finding some of the butters at Central Market that I had read about, I bought three new ones to try. More on those later......

baby quilt

2008-01-20T10:49:00.000-06:00

This is the quilt I want to make for my friend Stephanie's baby. I would do 4 different colored stripes, though--red/orange, yellow, green, and blue/purple--because I have some pretty good rainbow scraps. But the shower is next weekend, and triangles are hard to get right--will I have time? We'll find out!

caramel

2008-01-12T18:07:00.000-06:00

David Lebovitz has posted tips for making caramel. Mmmmm.......

bee towel!

2008-01-08T13:23:00.002-06:00

Look at the baby towel with bee fabric from Purl! I am making this, possibly for everyone I know.

I wonder how hard it is to sew terrycloth?

Lena Corwin is a little kooky and I like it

2008-01-03T16:32:00.000-06:00

Lena Corwin is the woman who had the wedding I loved so much in MS Weddings 2 years ago--with the vintage plates and fabrics and the groom in sneakers! She lives in Brooklyn and designs plates and pillows, I think.

She posts interesting, cute things to her blog all the time. Cute isn't the right word, exactly--she just isn't afraid of pattern and color. In this post she links to her Flickr photos of a friend's home in Healdsburg. It might be a little crazy for you, but I like it!

Unrelated: here is the Balthazar mushroom soup recommended on Smitten Kitchen. Just for you, Becca!

Happy Holidays from second grade!

2007-12-20T15:44:00.001-06:00

Ah, the holiday season. Time when everyone is ready for a break. Today we had our annual Snow Day where a foundation called Be an Angel brings in some "snow" since we generally don't get too much of that in Houston. I woke up this morning to rain and was worried that Snow Day would be canceled. Luckily the rain stopped and the snow was white and cold. Unluckily it was 80 degrees and 100% humid outside. Temperature and humidity aside we had a wonderful time making snowmen and getting into snow ball fights!

On Snow Day we always have our class holiday party. Each year I am amazed at the time and effort that the room mothers put into this party. This is generally when I receive a gift from the class and the gift this year was so amazing that I had to show it off. My room moms bought a small rosemary tree shaped like a Christmas tree and on it hung gift cards from various places. It is so cute and wonderful I don't want to take the gift cards off. Of course as soon as I start craving a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks I will give in! I am definitely saving this idea for when I have kids and the holiday season comes around because this present was both create and very useful in several different ways! Thanks to some wonderful room moms and to 22 amazing second graders!

dinner is served!

2007-12-14T19:18:00.001-06:00

Angry Chicken figured out how to make cakes in little jars. Looks like fun!

Did you read the story about Adelaide's dress request? No? Read it now.

Happy weekend!

Greek parrot

2007-12-14T10:34:00.000-06:00

Here is some interesting bird news gathered by my former colleagues.

the big house

2007-12-14T09:51:00.001-06:00

Did you read this interesting story about the house in England where the new movie Atonement was filmed?

Also, did you see my palmiers?

photo problems

2007-12-12T14:04:00.000-06:00

I have not yet managed to take good pictures of my Christmas wreaths, which are so pretty in real life.

At night I have to use the flash, which is ugly, and during the day, there is so much light behind the wreaths that you can't really get them lit from the front so as to see the the ornaments. Yesterday I was experimenting with using all different surfaces in the apartment as a tripod (since the camera has to be extra steady when the flash is not used).

Here is the bird/rugelach story from Smitten Kitchen! That is all.

unusual bouquets

2007-12-11T11:11:00.000-06:00

Last night while procrastinating I discovered a great wedding blog called Brooklyn Bride. Look at these amazing flowers...PS she likes the seersucker bridesmaid's dress from Thread (I'M JUST SAYING)! Oh PPS please look at this!!!

Pretty Things!

2007-12-10T21:41:00.000-06:00

After many years of studying different wedding registries I have been lucky enough to get engaged and create my own! It took a lot of looking and a lot of thinking but we finally decided on the most beautiful combination ever! After a very fun first wedding shower thrown by some wonderful friends we were able to put together a complete setting of our formal china, crystal, and sliver! So here is a picture to show off our pretty things along with some festive Christmas decorations compliments of RAR! More wedding updates to come!!!

Blueprint is folding

2007-12-10T15:17:00.000-06:00

After about a year of having feelings towards Martha Stewart's Blueprint that there must be a German word for (disappointment, disgust, irritation, and yet through all that still some attraction and even jealousy), I read this morning that the magazine is folding. I wanted to like Blueprint so much but always found it condescending and flimsy. I thought everyone else must have liked it, though, because MSLO was supporting it so fully, setting its editor up with the Today Show and all, and because some of my favorite craft bloggers kept raving about each new issue. I guess not.

I think Martha Stewart Weddings is an amazingly beautiful and creative magazine, and, stupidly, until today I had not thought of Blueprint as the logical subscription to pick up after Weddings--crafty lifestyle advice for stylish young couples or women who might not be ready yet for the full-on Living experience. You know, Weddings for my engaged younger sister, Blueprint for newlywed me, and Living for my more established mother. I wish they had succeeded, since the ideal version of this magazine is something I would very very much like to get every month.

Even when I was irritated with the magazine, I liked its blog, Bluelines, and it sounds as if they're going to keep that going even when the magazine dies. Yay!

Fudge - the Paula Deen way!

2007-12-09T21:47:00.000-06:00

I just saw Paula Deen make fudge with Velveeta in it! Oh my gawwwwwdddd......
Then she formed it into balls, put the balls on sticks, dipped them in caramel, then white chocolate, and finally nuts!

Moccasins

2007-12-09T11:43:00.000-06:00

Look at these Land's End moccasins that only cost $30! They even come in orange and red. I think they are so cute.

in the beginning

2007-12-07T10:10:00.001-06:00

When I went home for Thanksgiving, mom gave me Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, which I had been dying to buy. It's wonderful. I haven't made anything from it yet, but here are pictures of a spectrum quilt a Purl blogger made...scroll down to see pictures of her cat posing in the middle of it!

The other day I was walking down West 29th Street between 8th and 7th avenues and passed the most wonderful series of odd little old New York shops, the kind of thing it's hard to find now in most parts of the city: a store that had empty shelves but was selling a life-size fiberglass cow in the front window; a store selling only dried flowers, leaves, and branches; and a store selling only fencing supplies.

I can't wait to see The Golden Compass. I just finished The Amber Spyglass last week! That is all.